I can't say much here thats not already said by others. I had some trouble with the auto focus at first but Canon service brought it back to factory specs. So far it looks to be a worthwhile upgrade from the D60 and I have nothing really negative to say.

I plan on keeping the D60 as a second body dedicated to landscape/wide angle work and the 10D for telephoto/wildlife. Saves the hassle of having to change lenses in the field.

Mar 31, 2003

dknadlerOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Mar 19, 2002Location: United StatesPosts: 124

Review Date: Mar 31, 2003

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $1,475.00
| Rating: 10

Pros:

Image quality, ergonomics and price.

Cons:

At this price, none.

I owned a D30 before getting the 10D; while I liked the D30 a lot, the new camera corrects every deficiency of the D30 (except the 1.6 FOV) while adding some truly useful improvements: ISO 800 and 1600 now become usable; it's possible to focus the camera in nearly every situation; E-TTL flash is now reliable; and changing every setting on the camera has gotten much more convenient.

I have no complaints with this machine. Truly the bargain of the year.

This is my entry into DSLR from a Canon G1, so I'm speaking from the standpoint of someone who wanted to move "up" from the digital point-and-shoot. To summarize, this camera is everything I had hoped for.

All of the controls are well laid out and easy to use and learn. There are many features and customization options that let you configure the camera they way you want it. I find the viewfinder clear and easy to use. I only wish that it was 100% coverage (makes is really difficult to precisely compose using the viewfinder). The top LCD panel is well organized, and the back LCD is bright and easy to read. I find the histogram review very helpful (didn't have it on my G1), and the 10x zoom is great (just wish there was a faster way to zoom all the way in).

Coming from a G1, the 10D is very, very fast - exceeding my expectations. I am quite pleased with the AF and use both "select from all 7" and "select center point only" modes depending on my scenario.

Metering seems very good - I've used evaluative most frequently, but also played with partial and center-weighted. Perhaps a slight tendency to overexpose, but only in high contrast shots. I really wish they had a true spot metering capability...the partial metering area is too big for it to be useful to me.

I'm very impressed with how clean the 800/1600 and even 3200 ISO shots are. This is a boon for those times where I have to take indoor lowlight shots of my kids...concerts, games, etc.

I'm still exploring this camera, and probably will be for quite some time. Many other reviewers give better review of specific features and how they compare to th eD30/D60. I just thought that others who are thinking of making the jump up to DSLR might want to know that this is a great camera to jump to. Make sure that you are ready to compose through the viewfinder (I really prefer this), and don't mind carrying around extra bulk and weight. If you're ready to do that, this camera won't disappoint.

SUMMARY:
The 10D is what the D60 should have been when it was released. It addresses the 4 key issues of the D60- poor low-light AF; limited ISO range; lack of LCD playback zoom; and erratic ETTL flash exposure.

In addition it improves in many minor areas, and adds new features which are really icing on the cake. And then you look at the much lower price, and you have a killer camera. well worth the upgrade from a D60 (virtually free for me, via early sale on eBay yielding 95% of the new 10D price).

IMAGE QUALITY- as good as the D60 (i.e. excellent), with good dynamic range and extremely low noise at ISOs 100 and 200. Tends to overexpose a fraction where the D60 would underexpose, but that's no problem, simply dial in a 1/3 to 1/2 stop underexposure.

SHARPNESS- as good as the D60. post-processing is necessary, like all digital cameras, in photoshop. I would recommend a "smart" sharpener like Fred's Custom Sharpening actions.

COLOURS- more natural and "muted" than D60, but IMO more accurate, and you can and should tweak these in photoshop afterwards, or use the 5-increment in-camera parameters if you want to get that more saturated D60 look (not recommended, less flexible).

AF SPEED- **major** improvement over the D60, especially in low-light. this is a new AF module, not the same one simply re-jigged as in the D30 to D60 "upgrade". the 10D locks focus quickly and accurately on fairly low-contrast subjects, in situations where the D60 would just hunt and give up. It's no 1D/1V or even EOS-3, but it is damn good for most work. AF is no longer an issue IMO. AF speed in good light is better, but the improvement is not as dramatically noticeable as in low light.

AI-SERVO AF- now very useable, especially with the 7 AF points. tracks moving subjects well. It's no 1D or 1Ds, but beats the pants of the D60.

ISO RANGE AND NOISE LEVELS- simply amazing. very impressive low levels of film-like tight-grain at ISO 800 and 1600. in fact the 10D seems a little more than one full stop better than the D60... ie its ISO 800 is like the D60's 400, and its ISO 1600 is like the D60's 800, if not a bit better. *WOW*. ISO 3200 is useable, especially with downsampling or processing in neatimage, but there is a fair bit of noise, understandably so. Nice to have the option though.

PLAYBACK ZOOM- finally you can really check your critical focus on the LCD. hooray! plus you can switch from one image to the next while maintaining the same zoom point for easy, direct comparison. VERY NICE.

OVERALL SPEED- very snappy, feels noticeably more responsive than D60. shutter lag is reduced, and viewfinder blackout is much quicker. menus are easier to traverse, card formatting is much quicker, and the main jog dial turns more easily.

LONG EXPOSURES- about as good as the D60, ie. phenomenal. 5 minutes, 8 minutes or 10 minutes are nearly free of noise. a few hot pixels are easy to remove. noise is present, but only really prominent with *extreme* levels adjustment you would not ever do in a real life situation. easily dealt with via dust and speckles, radius 1 or 2 pixels. No other camera, apart from the D60 or 1Ds, comes close. Nikon D100? D1x? Faggedaboudit.

BUILD QUALITY- definitely more robust than the D60 with the magnesium substructure. no creaks or plastic "give" at all. Very "pro" feel, i like it.

ERGONOMICS- different button layout takes a bit of getting used to, mostly the same, but some rearrangement. Orange backlit LCD is nice. Overall, it seems more logical, comfortable to hold.

PROBLEMS? not a problem, but i wish the D60 included a microphone and speaker for a voice annotation feature. this would be great to capture the atmosphere at a party (music, laughing, conversation, etc) or to record information eg when travelling, the name of the new town you are entering so you know where the next 40 photos are from, what the name of your relative's friend is, etc etc.

I also wish the viewfinder (eyepiece) cover for long exposures wasn’t integral to the camera strap (which I have forsaken in preference for an OP/TECH neoprene style strap) so I could attach it to my substitute strap. Oh well- same as the D60. not a big issue by any stretch of the imagination.

SUMMARY- a great improvement on the D60. get one. NOW. i cant believe how cheap they are, plus canon seem to have fixed their supply problems.

Just thought some of you might be interested in my initial impressions with the 10D, especially given that we haven't heard too many opinions from 1D owners. I've been shooting with the 1D for about 10 months and used the D60/30 for a brief period before that. I shoot mainly birds and my primary lenses are the Canon 500 F4 IS and the 100-400 IS. I spent two days shooting last weekend and was very impressed with the results, although I do have a few nits.
My initial impression is that the camera is very well made... it feels solid in the hand and a little more well made than the D60, but its not night and day. It certainly doesn't have the 1D feel to it despite the magnesium body. For instance, my 1D survived a 4 foot fall onto rock a few months ago.... I'm not sure my 10D would fare so well. The viewfinder is surprisingly bright and does not seem overly small even after getting used to the 1D.... in the field, I never even thought about it. The LCD on the top is bright and very easy to read given the large aperture and SS numbers. This is particularly useful for me, as I often shoot in manual mode using an incident meter and seeing the numbers is key. The LCD on the back is bright, but seems a bit smaller than the 1D (I haven't checked the numbers). The large dial does feel a bit flimsy as mentioned before. The controls are all well placed on the camera, although I'm still getting used to them. The menu is similar to the D60 and is easy to navigate.
The speed of the AF is very good. I shot osprey in flight with both the 500 and 100-400, the former even with a 1.4X TC, and the vast majority of the shots were sharp and well focused. It seems to track very well. I did try shooting gulls in flight in very low light at the end of the day and it didn't fare as well as the 1D... but that is to be expected. I didn't buy the camera for flight shooting or fast action shots, so this are wasn't critical for me, but the performance I see thus far is a nice bonus. I do wish it focused at f8, because I frequently shoot with the 500 and 2x. Manual focusing is somewhat difficult on moving subjects, but I managed to even get a few sharp flight shots with this combo. I did find that on stopping down to f11 gave me a much higher percentage of sharp manually focused shots, likely due to the increased DOF.
The speed of the camera in image review and writing to the CD card does leave something to be desired. Although the 3fps is reasonably fast, once the buffer fills it seems to take ages to clear. I missed a ton of shots waiting for the buffer to clear. The 1D is FAR FAR superior in this regard, but that was to be expected. Another nit is that when the camera is writing to the CF card, it takes forever to pull up an image for review. This is problematic if you shoot a series of shots and want to pull up the histogram to check your exposure before shooting any more.
The image quality is superb. Like the D60, the images are pretty soft out of the camera and greatly benefit from some USM in Photoshop. After getting used to the sharp out of the camera shots the 1D produces, this has been a major area of complaint for many 1D owners. I have found that selectively sharpening the subject with a setting of 300/1/0 in PS will bring a 10D file to about 1D sharpness, but I am still playing with these numbers. Another shot of 100/.6/0 or so generally makes for a very sharp shot. In my opinion, the CMOS sensor produces an image that exceeds the quality of the CCD in the 1D. The backgrounds are so smooth, buttery soft, and noise free it amazes me. I do believe that you can approximate this look by using Neat Image on low ISO 1D images. The noise levels at ISO100, 200, and 400 are VERY VERY low. In my initial comparisons, I actually prefer ISO400 on the 10D to the 1D. I have yet to shoot at anything above ISO400.
All in all, it seems to be a cool camera that will work well in my rig with the 1D. Will I grab the 10D for all my action shots? Probably not. Would I hesitate to shoot flight shots with it. Nope. For $1500, it is a steal.
Here are some images: